Math books for fun

Parent Cafe
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<p>I’d appreciate suggestions of math books that are intended to be entertaining, such as the books by Ian Stewart, Raymond Smullyan (What is the Name of This Book), or Louis Sachar (Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School). Any age range is helpful–I have multiple gift recipients in mind. However, I’m not looking for the “DS or DD read Apostol’s Calculus for fun,” on this thread.</p>

2

<p>The Number Devil – a big favorite among DS’s mathy friends. They all read it in late elem - middle school. </p>

<p>Here we go…scroll down to a bunch of math books…
[Gifts</a> for the Gifted: the Best of Hoagies’ Shopping Guide](<a href=“Gifts for the Gifted”>Gifts for the Gifted)</p>

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<p>Flatterland - Ian Stewart. And of course the original *Flatland <a href=“what%20does%20a%20three%20dimensional%20world%20look%20like%20if%20you%20are%20only%20have%20two%20dimensions?”>/I</a> - forget the author. Other Ian Stewart books are good too.</p>

<p>The Book of Numbers - by John H. Conway. Some weird things in here - stuff about stacking. My son pored over it in fifth grade each time getting a little more of it.</p>

<p>Not quite a mathbook but 1000 Playthinks by Ivan Moscovich has wonderful puzzles, many very mathy, many that I haven’t seen anywhere else.</p>

<p>Mathematics from the Birth of Numbers by Jan Gullberg. Big FAT book.</p>

<p>Oh one more! *Math Curse *by Jon Scieska and Lane Smith, the funniest picture book you’ll ever read about math.</p>

4

<p>Sarah Flannery, In Code.
The Phantom Tollbooth.
Simon Singh. The Code Book.
Theoni Pappas, The Joy of Mathematics.
Richard Rusczyk, The Art of Problem Solving.
Keith Devlin, Life by the Numbers (Devlin also has other math books)
Martin Gardner, lots and lots of books of math problems and logic puzzles.</p>

5

<p>My son really loved everything by Simon Singh.</p>

<p>Bernard Guedj, The Parrot’s Theorem. Essentially an attempt to do a math-based Sophie’s World. Not bad, although weak at the end.</p>

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<p>Pigs will be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money (for 5-8 year-old) and other math books in this series.</p>